Kentucky Wildcats Sunday Quickies: California Chrome Edition

Good morning, gentle readers. As you can probably see, I'm not Glenn. Glenn will be at an undisclosed location playing copious amounts of golf through Tuesday. In the meantime, he has assigned me The Quickies, and as a part of my initiation, he expects me to write them in iambic pentameter (not really).

Look Ahead

Later today we will have the live thread for the extremely important softball game, and Hank has another excellent 2015 recruiting update. Check back early and often. To the news...

Tweet of the morning

Diamond Stone told me that he and Malik Newman are definitely a package deal.

— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) May 17, 2014

Two of the best players in the 2015 class. These package deals rarely seem to actually happen, so I'm hesitant to put much stake in his proclamation. I'd rather have Newman than Stone if push comes to shove, but the 2015 class will largely be determinate on who leaves after this season. Of the incoming freshmen, I'm just not sure.

Your Quickies

Kentucky Football

• Recent commits CJ Conrad and Jordan Jones both intend to enroll early. That's great. The earlier high school kids enroll the further along they will be by the time the season starts. Especially important with the projected youth at the linebacker and tight end positions in the 2015 season. Both of these players will need to add 20 pounds in order to be productive diversely immediately.
• Via Wild Weasel, Avery Williamson talks Titans.
• UK target Darius Fullwood will visit OSU again this summer. Fullwood would be a great get, but UK is facing steep competition from a lot of schools. Doesn't help that OSU hired renown D-line coach Larry Johnson this off-season.
• Via Hank, a HS freshman received an offer from UK.

Kentucky Basketball

• Kind words for UK's newest assistant basketball coach.
• SI predicts that Tyler Ullis will be the best freshman in the SEC next year.
• UK target drops 48 points yesterday but still critiques his performance.

Other Kentucky Sports

• Via Wild Weasel, the UK men's golf team finished fourth in the Raleigh regional, and so advance to next week's championship.
• The baseball team's rally fell just a tad short yesterday and so missed out on the sweep against UGA. UK's next game will be Tuesday in the SEC tournament.
• Speaking of the baseball team, AJ Reed was named a semifinalist for the Howser Trophy. This is the Heisman for college baseball players. I think it's a shame that more UK fans aren't hyped that one of our own could win this prestigious title.
• Unlike the baseball team, the softball team came up big yesterday and beat no. 25 James Madison. The ladies play in the regional final today at 1pm. As previously mentioned, we will have a live thread for the big game.
• The track and field team is doing big things at the SEC tournament. There seems to be a vocal minority of UK fans who actively dislike Mitch Barnhardt. I honestly don't get it. Aside from the BCG hire, he's done a fine job hiring good coaches. Coach Floreal is a recent example.
• Especially discus.

Links

• California Chrome wins The Preakness, and now has the Belmont in sight. I would love to see a Triple Crown winner. I really thought it would be Barbaro in 2007. Oddly, I remember where I was and what I was doing for that ill-fated Preakness race. Ford's Gym on Versailles Rd. for whatever it's worth.
• LSU AD wants beer at SEC games. I'm hardly surprised this comes from the LSU AD. I mean that in a good way, of course (nearby New Orleans is my favorite city). It's time to cast previous Puritan ideals aside and make beer available for adults at SEC games. Profits will certainly off-set any need for additional security. The SEC's stance has become archaic. Drunks in Lawrence are no more rowdy than drunks in Biloxi, and they seem to get by just fine.

College Football

• A top Alabama recruit posts his new, fully tricked out, Dodge Charger on Instagram. Questions naturally arise about how he was able to afford such a vehicle. Saban responds. The whole ordeal reminds me of this tremendous SB Nation long-form piece from last month titled, "Meet the Bag Man". Also, the aesthetic  taste of 17 year-olds...I mean, if you're getting a car for free does anyone with a scintilla of life experience ask for a Charger of all things? Aim higher, young man.
• UK football target Zach Giella commits to Clemson. According to 247, UK was Giella's first offer. This reinforces two points of prevailing wisdom: one, UK coaches do a good job of identifying talent early; two, it's really hard for UK to win over well-regarded recruits in the south.
• Tennessee is also recruiting very well. Butch Jones is doing amazing things recruiting-wise. Like UK, let's see them do amazing things on the field too.
• Auburn would like to highlight, but not claim, five national titles. Funny.
• Not sure if Glenn previously mentioned this, but Oklahoma State will lose one practice per week this season due to a low APR. The cynical side of me thinks this means OSU will have one "voluntary workout" per week this season, but it will no doubt hurt their season. Remember, UK football is one poor year away from probably having a below the threshold APR. I suspect they'll be fine (a lot of the low scores are due to transfers not completing classes when Stoops came on board), but this is another factor to consider when recruiting.

College Basketball

• Oregon perspective on recent rape investigation.
• O'Bannon plaintiffs aren't seeking monetary rewards nor do they want a jury to rule in their case.
• Sounds like Kevin Ollie entertained several teams recently, but none offered enough money to separate him from UCONN. I was of the mind that if the Thunder lost to the Clippers that Scott Brooks was losing his job, and that would be a position that could get Ollie out of Storrs.
• NBA mock draft! Randle to the Celtics and Young to the Nuggets in this one.
• Lexington local Darrin Horn would still like to coach.

Other sport news

• The World Cup is only 26 days away!
  
• Here's Nike's 2014 World Cup ad effort (I still prefer the 2010 World Cup version):
  
• Yesterday, for the first time in 63 years, La Liga season champs were determined on the final day between the two best teams.
• Today the Miami Heat take on the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Pacers have pointed to this series all season, but they've yet to string three good games in a row since February. I'll take the Heat in six games.
• I watch and bet a fair amount of MMA. Last night, a non-UFC promotion conducted their first PPV. The financial results aren't yet known. For the consumer, it's important that it succeeded.

Other news

• Do you watch Game of Thrones? Do you watch The Walking Dead? Here's a mash-up of the opening sequence.
• Lunch lady told her food was "too good." That wasn't a problem at Grayson County High School back in the day.
• I assume this was taken at the Preakness infield.
• Well done, playa.
• Google Fiber more places please.
• AT&T on the cusp of buying DirecTV? As a DirecTV and AT&T user, I'm not sure how I feel about this. They both offer fairly good services but DT's online and customer service is vastly superior to AT&T in my experience. Will one improve the other or make them both unbearable? Google Fiber, please rescue us all.